Boss VF-1 Effect Processor

Hi,
Thanks again for all the responses.  I've been spending a lot of 
time with the VF-1 the last few days, and am pretty pleased with the 
results.  If I can coax just a few more core tones out of it, I may 
drop the idea of moving to a dedicated floorboard (POD XT, Boss GT-
8, etc).

The main thing I haven't been able to pull out of the VF-1 is a 
convincing gritty blues tone -- something in the Robben Ford or SRV 
(Lenny or Riviera Paradise) vein.  It seems like both the Crunch and 
Blues amp models (the two likely candidates) have a fair amount of 
fizziness in them whenever the gain is bumped up.  That goes away on 
low gain settings (gain on low and volume low), but gets more 
apparent when with the gain & volume up high enough for real bite.  
Does anyone have some similar tones they'd like to share.

I've also been learning a fair amount about midi control of the VF-
1.  I expect that most of what I've learned is old news to veteran 
VF-1 users.  I'm now running one expression pedal into the rear 
jack, along with a midi floor controller (Digitech PMC10 with 
another expression pedal).  The PMC10 can send both PC and CC 
commands in a single string.  The CCs can be used to turn each 
effect in a patch on/off individually once one of the VF-1 Assigns 
has been specified as on/off for that effect.  One thing that really 
surprised me was how well the the VF1's "pedal wah" worked using the 
expression pedal.  I've had poor success regulating a wah with midi 
before (glitches in the midi transmission when you move the wah 
quickly), but the exp pedal directly into the VF1 seems to be 
working great.

Here's one more thing from this forum (apparently not in the manual)
that helped me while setting up my patches: The VF-1 is preset for 
midi program changes 1-128 to call up patches UserA 1-100 through 
UserB 1-28.  But you can switch among either of the two Program 
Change Maps or any of the four VF-1 banks using CC 00 commands:

CC 00 value 00 => Map 1
CC 00 value 01 => Map 2
CC 00 value 02 => Preset A
CC 00 value 03 => Preset B
CC 00 value 04 => User A
CC 00 value 05 => User B

So sticking a CC 00 command in a midi string allows access to any of 
the 400 VF1 patches.  This was in an old thread in this forum by 
Sjaak de Vos and I found it very useful information.

Cheers!
Bert





--- In BossVF1@yahoogroups.com, "stratoskier" <stratoskier@...> 
wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I know this group isn't particularly active anymore, but maybe a 
few 
> folks still read this...
> 
> One thing that always seemed really odd to me about the way the VF-
1 
> is set up is the fact that the distortions and overdrives are part 
> of the same module as the amp sims.  That means you can't put an 
> overdrive box in front of an amp.  Further, the only way to set 
the 
> overdrive intensity is with the gain function, but that's only a 3-
> way toggle (low, medium, and high).
> 
> Why on earth did they design it this way?  The predecessor of the 
> VF1, the SE70, had separate overdrives that could be turned on 
> before the amp sims.  Plus those overdrives had a fully adjustable 
> gain knob (0-100).
> 
> I don't get it: seems like this really limits the amount of 
control 
> we have on the VF-1.  Am I missing something here?
> 
> Thanks,
> Bert
>